The men being paid in slaves, the wages should be NIL, and
there should be a surplus of four or five hundred slaves for the
trader's own profit - worth on an average five to six pounds each.
The amiable trader returns from the White Nile to Khartoum; hands over
to his creditor sufficient ivory to liquidate the original loan of 1,000
pounds, and, already a man of capital, he commences as an independent
trader.
Such was the White Nile trade when I prepared to start from Khartoum on
my expedition to the Nile sources. Every one in Khartoum, with the
exception of a few Europeans, was in favor of the slave-trade, and
looked with jealous eyes upon a stranger venturing within the precincts
of their holy land - a land sacred to slavery and to every abomination
and villainy that man can commit.
The Turkish officials pretended to discountenance slavery; at the same
time every house in Khartoum was full of slaves, and the Egyptian
officers had been in the habit of receiving a portion of their pay in
slaves, precisely as the men employed on tile White Nile were paid by
their employers.
